Using Open APIs to build a dynamic B2B2X marketplace

What? The Channels and Markets Phase II Catalyst project seeks to make it easier for dynamic B2B2X marketplaces to form using TM Forum Open APIs.

Who’s involved? CSG, Microsoft, Nokia and Vodafone

Commercial context

Communication service providers (CSPs) can grow revenues more quickly when they partner with other types of service provider efficiently to combine assets and convert them to market offerings at speed. Time spent on engagement, onboarding, or integration processes – rather than development and sales – is ultimately income lost. A dynamic B2B2X marketplace requires maximum interoperability from the outset of a scheme – which rests on widespread adoption of common specifications which are easy to access, simple to use, yet adaptable to highly specific business scenarios. And this means ensuring APIs can work well when bringing together various types of service, which may not previously have been combined.

The solution

A metadata-driven solution could allow CSPs to standardize processes, manage variation between services through a catalog, and make complex B2B business models more manageable. The Channels and Markets Phase II Catalyst proposes a series of extensions to the TM Forum Open APIs aimed at realizing this objective, by making them more configurable for domain-specific uses without needing to customize the API. An end-to-model has been built as a proof-of-concept, with a design type and runtime experience so services can be discovered both through the Network-as-a-Service APIs and the Zero-Touch Partnering APIs, then converted into offerings for CSP customers.

Among the project’s main aims then are to remove the ‘catalog barrier’, create domain-specific specifications so almost any CSP can be supported, and achieve equity between assisted and non-assisted channels. Providers of highly specific solutions should not need the highly diverse business required to justify investment in a catalog to manage service schemas – so this project uses JSON schemas as an alternative to sharing product or service specifications through a catalog API. Products and services are shown in a JSON schema format and ingested into the CSP catalog used by the buyer, enabling access to a catalog-driven market without further system investment. Service agility is achieved through visual creation of service and product specifications, then the learning of these between production, core commercial, and engagement management systems.

Use cases bring the impact to life

The project team – which includes participants from CSG, Microsoft, Nokia and Vodafone – has developed a ‘stadium-as-a-service’ use case to prove the solution. A diverse range of services can be combined into a consolidated solution to support delivery of events – including timetabling, collaboration, live streaming, refreshments, seat cameras, augmented reality and gaming – while TM Forum Open APIs are used for partner integration and network service integration. Microsoft Dynamics is used for engagement management, CSG for core commerce management and Nokia Flowone for production management, as well as a dedicated 5G slice (scalable from small conferences to stadium events with as many as 150,000 attendees) from Nokia.

“This project delivers immediate direct benefits from the contributions to TM Forum standards,” explains Dr Lester Thomas, Chief Systems Architect at Vodafone Group. “The configurable lifecycle specifications in particular are a missing link in allowing TM Forum open APIs to be used for all domain specialization use cases, when combined with the other elements of this project and other contributions they have the potential to create a play and play super channel future for CSPs.”

Where is the value?

Using Open APIs combined with a complete meta data solution for all service types can save over 90% in integration costs - and with the recent worldwide trend among CSPs in favour of APIs, their true configurability is the missing element to a CSP-centric market of dynamic partnering for the delivery of digital services based on the unique capabilities of telecommunications networks.

Visit the project here to find out more: Channels & markets - Phase II - TM Forum